Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'CSAT is important' that was published in Newsband

CSAT is important

The Civil Service Aptitude Test has been introduced by the Union Public Service Commission. CSAT seeks to test a range of abilities and skills — including in terms of comprehension, interpersonal-communication, logical reasoning, decision-making and problem-solving and English language — all at Class X level proficiency. Many civil services aspirants are protesting against the introduction of CSAT.

These young protestors should learn from past Indian Civil Servants or those in the Defence Forces who despite rigorous training for one mission in life have not cleared these tests on their first and many on second and third attempts even. With shattered dreams, they did not protest on the streets; go to the press or the politicians. Rather they took up new struggles and achieved success as doctors, engineers, managers and in many other professions and trades. Therefore, today, we have a Chief of Army Staff with a two-roomed village school background and a fine Sainik School education. And we also probably still have the Defence Research and Development Organisation headed by a good old Civil Servant?

Importance of CSAT: Civil Servants should have Problem-Solving Skills because: Civil servants are also required to read balance sheets of companies, engage in valuation for public sector privatisation, engage with and analyse large amounts of data while designing policy interventions, or do simple calculations to do breakeven or profitability analysis. They cannot get by without looking at data based evidence during policy design. All these require an analytical and logical mind, which needs to be tested at entry. So CSAT is important

Who are the students to decide about what is going to be asked in the examination? The whole approach is wrong; rather they should be positive and should be ready to tackle any syllabus decided by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), accept it and work hard for it.

The aspirants protesting against CSAT are certainly on the wrong side. It seems these aspirants have problem with the logical reasoning and problem solving but they played the language card, asking the whole test be scrapped. The students nevertheless have to give English comprehension and English précis in the Mains exam (which tests class X level English); so why create a fuss at preliminary level? The UPSC and government should not bow down to such unfair demands.

Basic understanding of English is required. English is the language of communication with Central Government. Complete training naturally should be in English.

Who are these protesters to decide what should be in the exam? They cannot dictate their terms by violent protests because they are not able to pass. It is the job of UPSC to decide based on requirements and aspirants’ need to catch up.

It's an elite job where quality matters more than the quantity. Students should work hard for their skill rather than indulge in any violent act.

There is no need to listen to such an irrelevant protest. It doesn't require a genius to understand that if a person hasn’t the potential to learn class 10 level of English then cracking an exam like this mains is out of question